Rachel Requests Rent
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day four hundred and ninety:  abc 18 of 26  Rachel has something of a brilliant idea in mind, and she recruits Puck to help her.


_Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 23rd cycle. Now cycle 24!_

_**ALPHABET 2.0** - So nearly a year ago (HA!) I had done a set of stories taking inspiration by words, three for each letter of the alphabet (started with Acapella, Audition Arts in mid-February and every other day to April). Well now I wanted to do something like that, but using the alphabet another way. Instead of random words, I made sentences, all with those same letters (you'll see). The first half was in cycle 22, now here's the second half in cycle 24!  
**TODAY:** (18 of 26) R is for..._

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**"Rachel Requests Rent"  
Rachel, Puck... Rachel/Puck **

She couldn't believe she hadn't thought about it sooner… it was almost ridiculous that she hadn't. It was turning over in her mind over and over, somewhere, back there, for weeks, ever since Kurt had mentioned it in passing. None of it clicked until one morning, when she opened her eyes, and it was right there, of course…

They should do 'Rent'!

Realizing it was one thing. Nearly as soon as the thought had come to her, bringing excitement and ideas, she had to come to a sudden and possibly final stop… What about Schuester, and Figgins, and the rest of them? Generally speaking they were prone to resist the idea, but then to make it worse there was the aftermath of their trying to do Rocky Horror, and how it never got to exist for anyone but them. Rent was on a different scale, but it didn't change that they would be fighting them on it.

Then came her second brilliant idea… just don't give them a chance to say no.

Yes, that would work… they just had to get it together, at least part of it, and let them get taken in by what she knew would be so great. And with her at the helm, how could it not be?

She reached for a pad and a pen; she always had them nearby – just in case. In one column there were the names of the Glee Club members, and in the other there were the characters. There weren't enough leads for all of them, but they'd get around that later.

She drew an arrow from herself to Mimi, first of all. It was her idea, so she had the choice. She looked down to the second character… Roger… She stopped to think. It was important to pick the right guy for it… It wasn't going to be Finn. Even without their history and… their break up, it wouldn't have felt right. No… but she had an idea of who could be the right one. The question was… would he be up for it? She had to convince him. Once she had him that would make it all start to feel real, like she had something.

She called him and asked him to come over that afternoon. He asked what it was about, but she wouldn't say. He said he'd be there, so she got to work. She had to have everything ready to convince him. She didn't want to give him any ideas, so she set up in the family room. She had CDs, DVDs, books… When Puck showed up, she sat him down and took a breath.

"I need your help with something," she started, and he nodded. "You have to keep it a secret, can you do that?" He smirked. "Hey, hey," she shook her head. "Can you?"

"They won't hear a word out of me," he crossed his heart. "So what is it?"

"Rent," she smiled.

"You need money?" he sat up.

"No!" she sighed. "The musical, Rent, you know? It was on Broadway, there was a movie…"

"The extent of my knowledge on that comes from you guys, so what do you think?"

"Right, figures," she spoke to herself, but then she put her smile back on and resettled on the couch. "Not a problem, I'll teach you." He looked mildly concerned at that, remembering how much this girl could speak once she got started… But still he listened.

She spoke. She spoke for something like thirty minutes, maybe forty… maybe an hour. She spoke, and he listened… he couldn't not. It wasn't that she would have smacked him if he didn't – at least he didn't think she would – it was that she had managed to find exactly the right words to sell him on the thing. When she stopped, he was still staring, and he blinked, sitting back. She hadn't shown him anything, or made him listen to anything yet. She was working toward asking him if he was interested, if he'd do it, but then…

"Okay," he slowly nodded. She sat up.

"Okay?" she repeated, heart leaping.

"Can I hear it now?" he asked, and she smiled, reaching for the remote.

If she'd known she would ever find Noah Puckerman enthralled, actually enthralled over a musical, she would have found it hard to believe, but there it was. Whatever she'd said, it must have reached something in him. There was a moment when he looked at her, knowing what Mimi did and that it would be her playing it, but there was no comment.

He just continued watching, and when all was said and done he actually had a hard time looking as though he was cool and detached about the whole thing.

"I know he's in a wheelchair and everything, but I think Artie should play Mark," were his first words. Her eyes grew wide, just as they had that morning when she had the idea.

"Yeah, you're right…"she agreed.

"Why does it have to be a secret?"

"Well you weren't there for Rocky Horror. I just think it would be wiser at this point. At least for now..."

"Right… I'm in," he gave her his hand to shake, and she took it. Operation 'No Day But Today' was under way.

THE END

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**A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
****always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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